Special teams have been known to make or break teams.
For the Soo Greyhounds, a major penalty turned into the difference as the team dropped a 6-2 Ontario Hockey League decision to the Sarnia Sting at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia.
A pair of power play goals by the Sting late in the second period broke the game open for the Sting.
Greyhounds forward Tyler Savard was given a major penalty and game misconduct for goaltender interference with just under six minutes to go in the frame. When the dust settled, Sarnia wound up with three minutes of power play time as a result of the ensuing penalties and scored twice to take a 4-1 lead in the game.
Gaudreau’s day was also done after the hit. The veteran goaltender spoke with the Sarnia trainer for a short time before leaving the ice under his own power and not returning.
“It’s a tough penalty for us to take at that time,” Greyhounds coach John Dean said.
Dean agreed that the power play goals were a difference-maker in the loss.
“We’re not playing a great game (at that point), but we’re starting to push. We’re starting to generate (offensively) a little bit in that second period,” Dean said.
Greyhounds forward Bryce McConnell-Barker added he felt the team was improving as the game wore on ahead of the power play goals.
“The penalty and the power play goals they scored hurt us,” McConnell-Barker added, saying they took any momentum the team had at that point away.
Sarnia forward Ty Voit called the two power play goals on the Savard major “huge.”
“Especially since our power play hasn’t been clicking so far this year,” Voit said in an interview with YourTV following the game.
For the Greyhounds, much of the opening 40 minutes were a struggle in the game, specifically on the offensive side of the puck.
“We’re very disappointed with our effort in the offensive zone,” Dean said. “We never had a second guy on top of the puck. We were always getting outnumbered in the offensive zone, which is frustrating. You have to be hungry in the offensive zone.”
Dean added that turning the puck over offensively was also an issue in the loss.
“All we do is defend and we finally get the puck back and we turn it over,” Dean said, adding that it was an issue in the win over London on Friday night as well. “We’re not going to generate if we can’t put a couple of passes together.”
McConnell-Barker added that the team felt they also surrendered too many chances to the Sting.
“The first two periods, we were too passive,” McConnell-Barker said. “We were giving up too many chances. In the third period, we changed a little bit of our systems and it generated more.”
Sarnia got on the board first as overage defenceman Ethan Ritchie took a short pass in the slot from Voit in the left faceoff circle and beat Charlie Schenkel glove side. The goal came moments after a Greyhounds turnover near the Sault blueline.
Voit then made it 2-0 at 15:57 of the opening period when he took a pass in the right faceoff circle from Marcus Limpar-Lantz, moved to his left and beat Schenkel with a shot glove side on the power play.
The Greyhounds got on the board at 8:26 of the second period when rookie defenceman Matthew Virgilio picked up his second goal of the season. Virgilio took a pass at the blueline from Andrew Gibson and beat Gaudreau in the Sarnia goal
With the Greyhounds shorthanded late in the period due to Savard’s major, the Sting took advantage.
Limpar-Lantz made it 3-1 Sarnia as he beat Schenkel with a one-timer from the slot on a pass from Voit.
Sandis Vilmanis extended the lead to 4-1 when he beat Schenkel with a shot from the slot after a scramble in close saw the puck get poked out into the slot onto the stick of Vilmanis.
Sarnia took a 5-1 lead 93 seconds into the third when Marko Sikic redirected the puck past Schenkel after his initial shot missed the net high and deflected back in front of the goal off the end boards.
Voit ended Schenkel’s day for the Greyhounds at 10:32 of the third when he beat the Greyhounds netminder high short side from the left faceoff circle.
Marco Mignosa made it 6-2 with 5:27 to go in the third when he went to the net on a 2-on-1 and redirected a pass from Jordan D’Intino past Nicholas Surzycia in the Sarnia goal.
Schenkel made 26 saves for the Greyhounds before being pulled. Ivanov stopped all four shots he faced the rest of the way.
D’Intino assisted on both goals for the Greyhounds in the loss.
Gaudreau stopped 10 of 11 shots for Sarnia before leaving the game due to injury while Surzycia stopped 17 of 18 shot in just under 26 minutes of work.
Voit had two goals and two assists for the Sting.
Limpar-Lantz and Vilmanis also had four points with a goal and three assists each in the win.
Sarnia improves to 3-1-0-0 on the young season while the Greyhounds will carry a 2-3-0-0 record into action Monday.
Asked about the message for his players heading into the trip finale, Dean said consistency is key.
“We can’t be one team one night and another team another night,” Dean said. “We weren’t great in London, but we battled and competed. Today we didn’t battle and compete.”
The Greyhounds wrap up their road trip on Monday afternoon in Windsor against the Spitfires before returning home for a pair of games next weekend.